The composition is framed, where beginning and end survive, with an opening
phrase ('incipit', different from a modern book title in that it belongs within
the body of the composition) and an end-note ('colophon').

The incipit attributes the words to a revelation by king Amenemhat I. This
is one of only two instances in Ancient Egyptian hieratic literary compositions
in which the ostensible speaker is a king. The other is the Teaching
for king Merykara, a prolonged discourse on kingship in a divided Egypt.
Neither composition is dated closely, but broadly both belong to the Middle
Kingdom.

All copies are in horizontal lines of hieratic reading from right to left.
In these copies the body of the composition is separated by red points high
in the line, with more substantial separations indicated by the use of red (rubric)
to distinguish a phrase from the black pigment usual in writing.

For the intermittent red points, it is important not to assume in advance
what they signify. On a similar device in medieval manuscripts, see Marchello-Nizia
1978.